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\nThe United States on Monday said it would be a dangerous development for North Korea to send troops to support Russia in Ukraine, as Seoul has asserted.
\u201cWe have seen reports the DPRK has sent forces and is preparing to send additional soldiers to Ukraine to fight alongside Russia,\u201d Robert Wood, US ambassador to the United Nations, told the Security Council.
\u201cIf true, this marks a dangerous and highly concerning development and an obvious deepening of the DPRK-Russia military relationship,\u201d Wood said, using the acronym for the North\u2019s official name.
\u201cWe are consulting with our allies and partners on the implications of such a dramatic move,\u201d he added.
Seoul\u2019s spy agency said on Friday that North Korea had decided to send a \u201clarge-scale\u201d troop deployment to support Moscow\u2019s war in Ukraine, with 1,500 special forces already in Russia\u2019s Far East and undergoing training.
The agency estimated the North could send around 12,000 soldiers in total.
The US State Department is \u201cnot yet at a point where we\u2019re able to confirm those reports and whether they are accurate,\u201d deputy spokesman Vedant Patel said Monday.
France\u2019s UN envoy Nicolas de Riviere told the UN Security Council that the deployment of North Korean soldiers would constitute a further escalation.
He added that Pyongyang\u2019s \u201cincreasing support for the Russian war effort is very worrying.\u201d
The United States and its allies have already voiced concern about North Korea providing weapons to Russia, which invaded Ukraine in February 2022.<\/p>\n